Reviews:
 ·AT&T Midwest
| PC Upgrade--For gaming Hi There
Birthday is coming up in a few weeks
Current system specs
AMD Athlon 64 2.20ghz
4gbs of ram
Geforce GT430 video
Diamond Multimedia SOundcard
1 500gb hard drive
1 160gb hard drive
(Local PC shop said "you cannot add a Video card to HP Small form factor PC's) Not sure if that is true or false. Budget is around $399-499.00, and if i can't find any in that range, i guess waiting a bit longer
Main Games played
Second Life
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Need For Speed Undercover
Antivirus program used--Norton Antivirus 2012
any advice is appreciated in this matter, (I'll go with local custom built if i have to, retail, or maybe newegg online order)
Looking for a Dual or Quad Core, Intel or AMD processor, video card can be ATI or nvidia, doesn't really matter to me lately |
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 Wily_OnePremium
join:2002-11-24
San Jose, CA | With your budget, you're waiting a bit longer.  |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Midwest
| yeah that's what i figured was gonna be the solution for now..
unless i was gonna go custom build again, and just get updated Power Supply, Motherboard/CPU/Ram, Case
Video card is pretty new-bought last year
500gb hard drive in 2009
160gb hard drive in 2006
Opictal drives in 2009 drive 1, and 2008 for drive 2
Soundcard in 2007, and new motherboard i could just use onboard sound actually |
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Wily_OnePremium
join:2002-11-24
San Jose, CA | said by computerman2:...and just get updated Power Supply, Motherboard/CPU/Ram, Case Yeah you'd be hard pressed to get all that for less than $500. There's no extreme low-end PC I would consider suitable for gaming.
MaximumPC sometimes does an article on budget PC builds. I think the last one they did was less than $800. These are just a guide - you can of course adjust the components to your liking.
From the extreme low-end on up:
$340
»www.maximumpc.com/article/featur···dget_box
$667
»www.maximumpc.com/article/featur···nder_700
$1371:
»www.maximumpc.com/article/featur···tep_step
$1579
»www.maximumpc.com/article/featur···find_out
$1674:
»www.maximumpc.com/article/featur···der_1600 |
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| reply to computerman2
What game are you having trouble running properly? |
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| Sometimes i experience terrible lag in Secondlife, can't run battlefield 3 ( don't meet specs for that currently), only a single core processor currently. Otherwise everything runs pretty well for the most part |
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Reviews:
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Cox VOIP
| reply to computerman2
I know some one is selling a system on face book.
AMD Dual Graphics Card System For Sale
Case: Thermaltake V9 With Dual Docking Stations
PSU: Thermaltake 530W
DVD: Samsung 24X DVDR
Motherboard: BIOSTAR TA 75A+
CPU: AMD A6 3870K (Unlocked) Stock Cooling Fan
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR3 Dual Channel 8GB
Video Card: Sapphire HD 6670
$400.00 Plus Shipping |
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| Will definitely look into that, THank you for posting that |
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 pogPremium
join:2004-06-03
Kihei, HI
·Hawaiian Telcom
| reply to computerman2
Have a look at »[My Review] Just got a Bulldozer 6 core, it doesn't seem so bad
With your moderately low budget, you could probably upgrade the CPU, motherboard, PSU, memory and case. Reuse the GPU and HDs. Later on, get a better GPU.
Just a thought! 
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My Site |
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matt5
join:2001-10-06
Lagrangeville, NY | reply to jchambers28
said by jchambers28:I know some one is selling a system on face book.
AMD Dual Graphics Card System For Sale
Case: Thermaltake V9 With Dual Docking Stations
PSU: Thermaltake 530W
DVD: Samsung 24X DVDR
Motherboard: BIOSTAR TA 75A+
CPU: AMD A6 3870K (Unlocked) Stock Cooling Fan
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR3 Dual Channel 8GB
Video Card: Sapphire HD 6670
$400.00 Plus Shipping
We wanted to play GAMES did we not?
A pentium based system would beat that... and the card is laughable. |
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| key word here is duel AMD Dual Graphics. you can game on it. |
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Wily_OnePremium
join:2002-11-24
San Jose, CA | Dual crap just stinks twice as bad! |
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Reviews:
·Cox HSI
·Cox VOIP
| reply to computerman2
here is some bench marks for you
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxlQLzOC···jDSFRyet |
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matt5
join:2001-10-06
Lagrangeville, NY | reply to jchambers28
Key word here is
SO WHAT...
Onboard and a lowend vid card with a lowend CPU...
»www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam···-10.html intel PENTIUM cpu still faster (not buy a ton but then again... it's a pentium...)
Vid card lolz
»www.videocardbenchmark.net/video···+HD+6670
»www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.p···e+GT+430
OP's card
»www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.p···+GTX+460
like $70 used card...
I mean the old card blows it away my 470 (like 140 a pop now) blows it away...
If the op wants to game the OP is better off waiting a little longer. |
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| reply to computerman2
Wasnt it feb 15 is hd 7770, hd 7750, and some gtx 600 series end of feb. It should make the older gen to drop their price, and go on sale. Thats if you want to wait... optional |
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| Yeah i think for now i may wait, get a little more money into the budget if possible, and go for there, the current video card i got now replaced an 8600GT video card, so was a pretty big jump than previous card i was running |
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pandoraPremium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
kudos:1 Reviews:
·ooma
·Google Voice
·Future Nine Corp..
·Comcast
| reply to computerman2
A new full size case with power supply runs about $35 at Microcenter. My wife has used this case for almost 2 years running an I7 930 with a 6850 video card.
I purchased a nice new case (Cooler Master) for $42 at Amazon the other day for a test system. It had no power supply. If your case has a power supply and if your motherboard is in a standard (with any luck micro ATX format). It should be easy to move the parts to a case that will support a larger video card.
I wouldn't let the form factor lock me in. Migration to a nicer case could cost as little as $35.
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." |
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 KrisnatharokCaveat EmptorPremium
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit
kudos:3
·Comcast
| reply to computerman2
I don't necessarily agree with a case AND PSU for $35 (since you get what you pay for with bargain basement PSUs can stand a good chance of ruining your entire rig with dirty power)--especially when you are gaming and the PSU has to deal with a beefier GPU found in any ole regular home PC--but the case and PSU I would be looking at, considering your budget, are:
• Microcenter Diablotek Legend ($20 after MIR, with just tax if you pick it up in store): »www.microcenter.com/single_produ···=0367569
• CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 PSU ($35 after MIR): »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···17139026
I've seen the PSU as low as $25 when it hits shell-shocker status.
Also take with a grain of salt what matt5  is saying about the 6670 compared to the Nvidia 430. Since the onboard IGPU of the FX acts as a 6670 as well, you need to compare the performance of two 6670s in Crossfire (or at least a review site that compares the FX chip + 6670 in terms of graphic performance).
To be clear, it is no screamer (its 3D Mark 11-P score is P1452, while GTX560ti/i5-2500K systems score between 8000 and 9000), but should be considered only because of your budget.
For instance, Newegg is selling a CyberPowerPC "Ultra Gamer" pre-built for $549 with these specs:
AMD FX-4100 Quad-core Bulldozer processor with a stock cooler
Gigabyte M68MT-S2 NVIDIA 7025 chipset motherboard
8GB DDR3-1333 MHz memory
AMD Radeon HD 6670 1GB graphics card
500 GB SATA III 6 Gb/s HDD
DVD Burner optical drive
500 watt power supply
Azza Black Orion Red case
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Not bad when they throw in the OS ($100 value) and keyboard/mouse.
However, if you are trying to play BF3 in addition to the much older games you listed (which will have NO problem flying along on the FX-4100 system), I'd go for at least an i3 chip and a Nvidia 550 or Radeon 6850 GPU.
HOWEVER.
It is certainly possible to build a system under your budget that can at least play BF3 on low settings. You won't have all the eye candy, but it will chew through older games like MW2 and have no problem playing newer releases, albeit at lower settings.
Here's my attempt, and while it requires you to pick up the CPU and computer case at Microcenter (that saves you about $50 over ordering everything from Newegg), it's my "best attempt" at giving you what you need under your budget. If your old optical drive is IDE and not SATA, throw in another $20 to pick up a new one.
CPU - Core i3 2100 LGA 1155 3.1GHz Boxed Processor - $100
Mobo - ASRock Z68M/USB3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 - $93
I would go with: MSI Z68MA-ED55 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 - $110 ($17 more after shipping)
RAM - G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model - $37
GPU (nvidia) - MSI N550GTX-Ti-M2D1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 - $100
GPU (AMD) - SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 - $142
HDD - Reuse ($0)
PSU CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W - $37
CASE Diablotek Legend Mid Tower ATX Computer Case - $20 (normally $30, $44 at Newegg)
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM - $100
Optical - Reuse ($0)
TOTAL $487
Just a note: I picked components based on price and many of these items may have a limited time sale or MIR that you would need to jump on fairly quickly to get this price (including shipping, where applicable).
2nd Edit: I just realized I configured for you a much more powerful system than the CyberPowerPC Pre-built, although we didn't include an HDD and an optical drive. Go me. 
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening. |
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| reply to computerman2
You are wanting it to be built, rather than building yourself?
You don't have a retail copy of windows but are using an oem that came with the hp system, so you will need to purchase a new copy of windows? |
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